cannabisnews.com: Appeals Court Snuffs Out Warrantless MJ Search
Appeals Court Snuffs Out Warrantless MJ Search
Posted by CN Staff on January 12, 2008 at 08:05:11 PT
By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
California -- Police can't enter a home without a warrant just because they see someone inside smoking marijuana, a state appeals court ruled Friday.In overturning a Pacifica man's conviction, the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco said officers may enter someone's home to preserve evidence of a crime - but only if the crime is punishable by jail or prison.
Under a 1975 California law, the court noted, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of as much as $100, with no jail time even for a repeat offense. That means police who see someone smoking can enter only if they have the resident's permission or a warrant from a judge, the court said. The case dated from March 2005, when Pacifica officers came to an apartment where loud noises had been reported, smelled marijuana as they approached, and looked through an opening in the window blinds to see someone smoking what appeared to be a marijuana cigarette among a group of people.Over the objections of John Hua, who lived at the apartment, police entered and found two marijuana cigarettes in the living room, 46 marijuana plants in a bedroom and an illegal cane sword on a bookshelf, the court said. After a San Mateo County judge upheld the search, Hua pleaded no contest to cultivating marijuana and possession of the cane sword and served a 60-day jail sentence, his lawyer said.In defense of the search, prosecutors argued that police had reason to believe there was more than an ounce of marijuana elsewhere in the apartment - enough to subject Hua to a possible one-year jail sentence - and that Hua or others might be committing felonies by handing marijuana cigarettes to each other. Snipped:Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/28fa8oNewshawk: The GCWSource: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Saturday, January 12, 2008Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by afterburner on January 13, 2008 at 23:20:52 PT
In Depth Analysis of a Social Disaster Caused by
Government Policy."ghettoizing the poor, the addicted, the sick and the mentally ill" to save the economy. CN BC: OPED: A Never-ending Tale of Political Neglect, Vancouver Sun, (12 Jan 2008)
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v08/n042/a05.html?176The right wingers will say that the mess was caused by 'drugs.' Drugs are a symptom, not a cause. The lack of compassion for the suffering of their fellow humans by politicians created the problem.
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on January 12, 2008 at 21:43:34 PT
This Federal Ruling Agrees with ON Appeals Court
The GCW #6 Canada: Ottawa Loses Marijuana Fight, Vancouver Sun, (12 Jan 2008)
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v08/n039/a09.html?176Excerpts: "The one-to-one ratio was first struck down by an Ontario appeal court in 2003, but the government reinstated the policy several months later, prompting the current court challenge." "Under the current set of regulations, licensed producers are only allowed to grow the drug for one patient at a time. Federal Court Judge Barry Strayer said that the one-to-one ratio violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."Drug law in Canada is a federal, not a provincial, responsibility. Having a federal court rule in agreemnet with provincial criticism validates the Ontario Court of Appeal's 2003 ruling and provides real protection for Canadian medical "marijuana" patients.
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on January 12, 2008 at 20:43:33 PT
Canada: Government Loses Challenge To Medical Mari
Canada: Government Loses Challenge To Medical Marijuana RulesPubdate: Sat, 12 Jan 2008
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)Cont."What the federal court effectively did was assert that the government of Canada does not have a monopoly over the production and distribution of medical marijuana," said Alan Young, one of the lawyers who launched the court battle on behalf of 30 patients. Cont.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n039/a08.html?397
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Comment #5 posted by RevRayGreen on January 12, 2008 at 20:20:06 PT
OT:But Topical
Clinton advisor charged with DWI"NASHUA, New Hampshire (AP) – A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was arrested and charged with aggravated drunken driving a day before the New Hampshire primary.Nashua police say Sidney Blumenthal was arrested early Monday morning after an officer pulled over a car traveling 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. Blumenthal, 59, is a journalist and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now serving as an unpaid adviser on Hillary Clinton's campaign."I asked if he was here with a campaign. He said he was here with Clinton," Sgt. Mike Masella, one of the arresting officers, told newsweek.com.Masella said Blumenthal told him he got lost after leaving a restaurant in Manchester, about 20 miles away, to return to his hotel."(:major roll eyes)
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Comment #4 posted by ChristenMitchell on January 12, 2008 at 13:47:57 PT:
Study shows marijuana increases brain cell growth
By Juanita King, The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland)ST. JOHN’S, Nfld — Supporters of marijuana may finally have an excuse to smoke weed every day. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that smoking pot can make the brain grow.Though most drugs inhibit the growth of new brain cells, injections of a synthetic cannibinoid have had the opposite effect in mice in a study performed at the University of Saskatchewan. Research on how drugs affect the brain has been critical to addiction treatment, particularly research on the hippocampus.The hippocampus is an area of the brain essential to memory formation. It is unusual because it grows new neurons over a person’s lifetime. Researchers believe these new cells help to improve memory and fight depression and mood disorders.Many drugs -— heroin, cocaine, and the more common alcohol and nicotine — inhibit the growth of these new cells. It was thought that marijuana did the same thing, but this new research suggests otherwise.Neuropsychiatrist Xia Zhang and a team of researchers study how marijuana-like drugs — known collectively as cannabinoids — act on the brain.The team tested the effects of HU-210, a potent synthetic cannabinoid similar to a group of compounds found in marijuana. The synthetic version is about 100 times as powerful as THC, the high-inducing compound loved by recreational users.The researchers found that rats treated with HU-210 on a regular basis showed neurogenesis — the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus. A current hypothesis suggests depression may be triggered when the hippocampus grows insufficient numbers of new brain cells. If true, HU-210 could offer a treatment for such mood disorders by stimulating this growth.Whether this is true for all cannabinoids remains unclear, as HU-210 is only one of many and the HU-210 in the study is highly purified.“That does not mean that general use in healthy people is beneficial,” said Memorial psychology professor William McKim. “We need to learn if this happens in humans, whether this is useful in healthy people, and whether THC causes it as well.”McKim warns that marijuana disrupts memory and cognition. “These effects can be long-lasting after heavy use,” he said. “This makes it difficult to succeed academically if you use it excessively.”“Occasional light use probably does not have very serious consequences. [But] there is some evidence that marijuana smoke might cause cancer.”Still, the positive aspects of marijuana are becoming more plentiful as further research is done. McKim says it’s not surprising that THC and compounds like it could have medicinal effects.“Many have been identified,” he said. “It stimulates appetite in people with AIDS, it is an analgesic, and blocks nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. And it treats the symptoms of glaucoma.”The research group’s next studies will examine the more unpleasant side of the drug.
Hemptopia - Our Greener Future
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Comment #3 posted by user123 on January 12, 2008 at 10:43:34 PT:
Same as Always
As West Coast coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Brownell recalled, he drafted the 1975 marijuana law for then-state Sen. George Moscone, the San Francisco Democrat who later became the city's mayor and was assassinated in 1978. The law was signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, now the state attorney general and head of the office arguing to uphold Hua's conviction.Oh, I get it. Once again someone is putting their paycheck over principle.
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Comment #2 posted by Richard Zuckerman on January 12, 2008 at 08:55:33 PT:
SIMILAR TO NEW JERSEY CASE OF STATE V. HOLLAND
There was a published New Jersey Appellate Division case entitled State v. Holland in around 2002 in which the panel held that the smell of Cannabis is only a disorderly person offense and not ordinarily a felony which qualifies for a search warrant. The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a determination of whether the "independent source doctrine" excepts the search warrant requirement because one of the apartment occupants ran out the back door and dropped a few buds in plain sight right in front of a police officer. By the way, for those of you interested in following District Of Columbia v. Heller, www.dcguncase.com, an employee of the U.S. Supreme Court told me last Friday that the oral argument will not be scheduled until after around January 16, 2008. I want to personally attend this oral argument! This, by the way, is the case of whether the Second Amendment is an individual citizen's Right to keep and bear arms, perhaps one of the most important cases in a long time!!!By the way, a study reported in American Renaissance, www.amren.com, dated January 7, 2008, concludes that "Illegals Depress Wages by $1.4 Billion in Arizona". For those of you looking to vote for Obama, whose wife is a member of the Council On Foreign Relations; Hillary Clinton, a Bilderberg; John Edwards, a member of the Council On Foreign Relations; these people support the illegal alien invasion. Mike Huckabee is not credible in my judgment. Mitt Romney sounds good, too, but I question his credibility, also. RON PAUL IS THE MOST SOLIDLY CREDIBLE CANDIDATE FOR U.S. PRESIDENT FOR AMERICANS!!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 12, 2008 at 08:24:01 PT
Washington Post: First Person Singular
Aaron Houston, Marijuana lobbyist, Takoma Park***Sunday, January 13, 2008; Page W06 I think I have one of the coolest jobs in Washington. I'll call a congressional office and say, "I'm calling from the Marijuana Policy Project." And they say, "The Maryland Policy Project?" "No, no. Marijuana." Complete Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/08/AR2008010803467.html
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